The Antibody Society is an international non-profit association representing individuals and organizations involved in antibody research and development. They engage in activities that broadly benefit their members, and encourage collaboration between organizations in the antibody field.
They are an authoritative source of information about antibody therapeutics development, which they disseminate via their website, presentations and publications. They also help to organize conferences on topics relevant to antibody research and development. As a non-profit association, the Society can engage with government and international agencies to discuss issues of importance to the antibody community. In 2016, the Society:
-was invited to engage in substantive discussions with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Non-proprietary Names (INN) Expert group regarding the definitions used to assign INN; -co-hosted a meeting on antibody reagent validation held at Asilomar; and -supported the Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire (AIRR) Community.In 2017, they have continued their discussions with WHO, which led to changes in their antibody naming method. They have started the process of incorporating the AIRR Community into the Society, and will assist with their development of recommendations for:
-a common repository for AIRR sequence data; -minimal standards for publishing and depositing AIRR sequence data; and -resources and guidelines for the evaluation of molecular and statistical methods for AIRR sequence data. These topics will be discussed at a workshop to be held in December 2017. Finally, the Society initiated an on-going study of metrics for antibody therapeutics development.Learn more by visiting www.antibodysociety.org or contacting their President, Paul Parren, PhD, at paul.parren@antibodysociety.org.